Does someone know where we're going?

2007-08-17T00:02:00.000-07:00

Orrin, me and Lawrence.. cousins reunited!
Zoom and you'll see the Hollywood sign! haha
I have got pretty damn lazy now its nearing the end of my travels.. find a bed anywhere!
Lunch in Hollywood
How cute.. Uncle Jamie and Auntie Lisa.. and to think I was a bridesmaid at their wedding when i was little and cute :)

The sexy boys...If you could see that this is moving, I wouldn't look such a pratt but you can't... so I do!And Uncle Jamie has already managed to make his own mark in Hollywood!

Just a quickie to say HI i'm in LA! Woo hoo! Had a great laugh the last 2 days just catching up and seeing the sites. I laughed so much today my stomach hurts.. so I'm going to bed to rest up for the Laughing fits I'll have tomorrow!

Congratulations to Immy, it was lovely to speak to you today honey, and hey maybe you should study art in Australia? :)

2007-08-16T23:39:00.000-07:00

Some of the local kids - they love having their picture taken and seeing it come up on the screen
Inter Island Rugby Tournament
Weaving with the ladies
Berry tries to chuck me off the island summit!

The island of Waya LaiLai resort
Beach Volleyball

Traditional Kava Session

Fiji.. WOW!

Gorgeous and full of culture. The people are so friendly and cheeky and funny and welcoming and just lovely.

I spent my time on the island of Waya LaiLai except for one night on the mainland and one on the island of Waya.

Waya LaiLai is a fully Fijian owned island so you can immerse yourself in the culture and know that every dollar u spend is going straight to the villages or back into the resort itself.

Everyone knows your name from the first 5 mins of you being there.. and everyone comes to talk to you and shouts hi as you walk past. Its amazing.

The dancing and plays they put on in the evening was brilliant

They got us playing games and dancing the bula. I was even crowned the bula Queen and got free beer!

We tried Kava.. which makes your tongue go numb and mellows u right out if u drink enough of it. It'd their traditional narcotic.. lol.

I learnt to weave bracelets.. I hiked with berry (who asked me never to leave and promised to pick me up from the airport and show me his hometown if i go back! lol) up to the summit of the island.

The kids were amazing and So intrigued by technology.. i lent them my zen (mp4 player) and they just loved it.

Played volleyball and touch rugby on the beach and all the locals and visitors get involved.

Lucky for me, while I was there they had an inter island rugby match which was amazing to watch.. it was THE most violent game I have ever seen and one guy dislocated his shoulder! Eugh... still it was great to be able to see them play.

They took us to their church ina boat on the Sunday and the main village was very accomodating. I can't believe how friendly they all were.

The other travellers I met where fantastic too, especially Dan and Rachel who I spent most of my time with - they got married in May and are travelling for 10 months as an extended honeymoon. How awesome is that?!
We had some hilarious nights playing poker with beer tops and 'the magic straw'

Sad to leave Fiji but so excited about seeing Uncle Jamie, Auntie Lisa, Lawrence and Orrin.. BRING ON USA!

2007-08-01T23:55:00.000-07:00

New Zealand

How late is this?!

New Zealand in 3 weeks is a mad rush... but i got to see what I wanted to see.

Rotorua was cool.. where the hot natural springs are.. smells like sulpher tho.. mmm...

Went to a Maori night to see some traditional dances, singing and eat traditional food (cooked underground using the natural heat)

It was fantastic. The haka is so damn cool to watch!

Really loved Auckland but was only there for a couple of nights. Managed to catch up with Ali there and watch the Simpsons movie (both of us were too hungover to do anything else!) 'Spiderpig.. spiderpig... "

NZ did involve a lot of alcohol consumption.. the shots pictured above are from the messiest night in Queenstown, which was free thanks to some epic blagging from yours truly!

That pic is one of a series... there were many different shots all night all in the same quantity! I still don't know how I made it to Christchurch the next day...

So after NZ I was supposed to go to Fiji. But instead I ended up going back to Sydney for a week first.. i just can't keep away! x

2007-07-21T00:03:00.001-07:00

Made it to Queenstown for my 3 days of boarding.. and of course, the law of the sod means that I immediately came down with a really bad cold... could hardly move yesterday!

Still.. I don't have time to mess about so have been out boarding everyday regardless.. and it has been absolutely worth it!

First day was not so fun.. I was really sick, and it go frustrating at times trying toget the hang of it all BUT today it has clicked a lot more and I had so much fun.

My mate Scott has been doing it with me cuz we're about the same level and have progressed about the same.. and today our friend Lynee tried it for the first time. It was pretty amusing day and we all spent a lot of time on our arses!

The majority of our bus group are doing skiing.. but we're sticking with the boarding because once you get the hang of it it really is mad fun.. does seem harder to get to that point tho! Would love to try skiing one day..

2007-07-18T01:56:00.000-07:00

Not at all off putting...

What could possibly go wrong?The Kiwi Trekkers

Franz Josef glacier hike!
What an experience.. an 8 hour hike up a glacier, and with my record of accidents and general calamity - it was sure to be eventful.
It was.
I provided much of the entertainment for the group managing to fall through the ice into thigh deep freezing cold water which filled my boots full of slush, AND falling spectacularly onto a hard slab of ice having just congratulated myself on climbing down a particularly precarious part of the trek!
Today.. I hurt.
But it was well worth it!

Saw some beautiful scenery and overcame some (quite RATIONAL) fears!
Crawled into and through an underground ice cave.. NOT one for the claustrophobic!

It was pretty difficult at times, and as the glacier is changing all the time we were exploring new territory and had to cut out steps along the way. Climbing parts of it was difficult because my short leg/no arm muscle combination wasn't working for me! Still I made it and it was so satisfying at the end of the day to have completed a full days exploration.

I saw so much and the photos really don't do it justice... but here some are for you to enjoy.

Only 2 weeks left in NZ :(
But only 3 days till the new Harry Potter book :)

Love to you all xxx

2007-07-15T21:43:00.000-07:00

The All blacks!!!
Post it man and car seat!

Bumblebees
The Fab Four
Mummy - the eventual winner of the costume comp..

Angels
All blacks again cuz we're great!
Dressed as a rucksack.. worn by an Arabian princess?!
The Greek God, the All black, the sleeping bag and the Arabian princess...

Last night was a themed party night... the theme being 'Anything BUT clothes'

Absolutely legendary costumes..

Just thought you'd like to see a few of them!

Currently in Franz Josef awaiting my 8 hour glacier hike tomorrow! Brrr.....

2007-07-15T21:18:00.000-07:00

New Zealand is stunning... like no other country I have seen yet...
Dad must have been here and claimed his own street...
Got to see the seals in Kaikoura right up close.. in fact one guy nearly got

scared by one that barked right next to him.. and fell over in his rush to escape! ha! The middle of middle earthMe, Shane and Lauren in Brighton?!!! The kiwi bus promotes sensible drinking...

.. it also promotes extreme activities!
... even when they aren't exactly 'legal'!

Who is going to tell the crabs they aren't allowed?
And WHAT is the guy on the right doing?!

NEW ZEALAND!!!!!!!

Who thought I'd ever leave Australia?! I know.. I'm surprised myself!

I have been in NZ for less than a week and still there is FAR too much to update you on, but I shall attempt to give you a brief overview of the best bits..

Started in Chrustchurch where I managed to catch up with Shane and Lauren - who Ali and I met in Koh Pha Ngan in the first month of out travels! Excellent to see them again - they are travelling around in a van so we went out for the day to Brighton Pier and caught the new harry Potter movie on its first day out! haha! I'm such a loser... less than a week till the new book and i'm THIS excited (that's really quite a lot...)

After Christchurch we went to Kaikoura to see seals, whales and dolphins. This was my first night on the kiwi bus so of course we all went out and had a 'get to know you drink'

From Kaikoura it was off to Nelson.

Not much to do there but of course we had time to check out the bars...

Westport went much the same way...

haha actually we've done loads.. a lot of walking and some gorgeous scenery.. so many beautiful photos! been to the centre of NZ (middle of middle earth..) and been so lucky weatherwise. It IS cold but we've had pretty much constant sun shining on us!

LOVING NZ.. looking forward to some snowbaording in Queenstown...

2007-07-15T21:09:00.000-07:00

Tara and Suna on a cold night in Sydney...

Ironically meet up with a kiwi rugby team.. the night before I fly to NZ!

My last night in Australia.. Appropriately it was Sydney :)

Had a fantastic last weekend there catching up with people I worked with/lived with.

Met some new people in my hostel and so my plans for a quiet last night were scuppered spectacularly! Especially because Suna (friend from Fraser, Whistundays and my skydiving buddy!) turned up as well...

Still don't know HOW I made the plane to NZ...

2007-07-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

How nervous do I look?!!!!!!

Scared much?What a rush?! I don't know if you can tell but I am LOVING it!

Tara and Suna safe on the ground once more!

So Cairns.. the most exciting event in my trip so far and I decided to do it THAT morning!

I think any other way i wouldn't have gone through with it!

As it was, I had to wait for the longest 3 hours of my life - by FAR the scariest bit of the dive!

Absolutely fantastic experience.. loved it.. can't WAIT to do another one!

2007-07-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

Everyone on our sailing trip!!!
Jumping off the boat
Derek, Suna and me

Tara driving the boat!

Whitsundays sailing was epic! We were so lucky because we had perfect weather the entire time! The crew were fantastic.. the skipper (Wazza) let me drive the boat for an hour :)

As you can see from the photo.. not everyone was best pleased with this arrangement!

It was quite scary when the skipper just went off and left me tho! It's not like I have a great history when it comes to any kind of vehicles! lol...

Did do some snorkelling and diving.. stinger suits essential in this part of the sea.. did NOT fancy a box jellyfish cosying up to me. I did very little water activities.. preferring instead to laze about on the boat/beach/island!

The last night we were supposed to stay on an island but ghot quite tipsy ;) and ended up in a dingy back to the boat! It was madness.. I thought it would be genius to climb to the top of the boat and slide down the front of it like some sick waterslide..

it was genius.

Of course I injured myself the 20th time I did it and now have to take antibiotics for my rapidly swelling foot! haha! Didn't hurt at the time funnily enough!

After the Whitsunday sailing it was back to Airlie beach and a brief reunion with Ali.. again carnage ensued! We had a great group of people and chilling by the lagoon is the BEST way to cure a hangover!

Bye bye to Ali again.. but hopefully will be seeing him again in NZ

For me it was off to Cairns..

2007-07-08T00:05:00.000-07:00

OK.. so next we arrived in Kroombit just for one day and one night...

But we packed in a lot!

I herded goats on horse back!

And we had to capture and 'brand' the goats.. No cruelty involved I promise!

I learnt to lassoo (but not how to spell it!) and i managed it first shot! Sweet...

I learnt to crack a whip so fast it breaks the sound barrier! Now that's cool! lol

I rode a mechanical bull!

I went clay pigeon shooting...

And generally got pretty damn muddy! It was a wicked place and the food was amazing! Steak, steak with a side of steak! lol

But had to leave EARLY the next morning to get to Airlie beach and leave for my Sailing trip around the Whitsundays! X

2007-07-07T23:38:00.000-07:00

Waiting for the tide to go back out! Stranded!
Our 4wd vehicles
Darryl, Will Smith (yeah hahah!) and me.. but how short are Darryl's legs?!!!!

A dingo attack!
Champagne Pools... Waves like you've never experienced!

The self drive group.. no they didn't let me drive :)Gorgeous lake on fraser Island that I can't remember the name of!

Arrived in harvey bay to set off early the next morning on a self drive 4WD camping weekend.

It was amazing.

Fraser Island is gorgeous and we were fourtunate enough to be there as the cold weather broke so we got some really warm weather.

SO many photos... I'm not doing the island justice with the small selection of photos i've put here...

The lakes were stunning and so clear.. you can actually drink the water! We went swimming in Lake Mackenzie and took some underwater photos which (when i get them developed) should come out really well.

One evening we couldn't make it back to the camp site because of high tide and when the tide did eventually go out we had a pretty hairy drive back in the dark! Still we managed to cook our dinner on the beach so we got by :)

Drinking at night almost always led to a dingo hunt! unsurprisingly the dingoes were far more adept at finding US than we were them! We did see some lingering around our campsite but they didn't bother us..

.. In fact i would far rather meet a dingo in a cold dark alley than the owner of the harvey bay hostel! What a weasel!

Had a wicked group of people to tour around the island with, and it all ended too soon BUT end it did and off we went to Kroombit for our cowboy training...

2007-07-07T23:25:00.000-07:00

Ok its not been THAT long since I updated but SO much has happened...

Brisbane was pretty boring, didn't do much.. ate a lot :)
Said my goodbyes to Vicky (aka Sticky Koala) and some mental NZealanders we met...
and Off I went to Noosa.

Noosa was lovely but we just happened to get there on the coldest day they have on record!
Still the next day was a lot warmer and we had a lovely day at Australia Zoo where I actually got to HOLD a koala. In Victoria this is illegal but in the good old state of Queensland.. it's all good :)
And I got to play with a possum too...

Woke up in Noosa to wild kangaroos chasing a little boy for his sandwiches.. I would have helped but laughter incapacitated me..
.. and he was fine anyway! Still, when I left he and his sister were still in their cabin which was gradually getting more surrounded by roos! But I had a bus to catch so...

2007-06-16T23:33:00.000-07:00

Zorbing - the only way to travel...Vicky faces her fear of the sea.. "But things LIVE in it" Yes Vicky.. things live in Leeds too... and they're far scarier!

It's not a night out if you don't come back in a trolley!
Austin Powers gets to meet us :)
The Superman ride... scarier than shark in your sock drawer..

Surfers Paradise was lush..

We got a small 6 bedroom apartment for a week with an Irish couple (Martin and Andrea) and an English couple (Dave and Katy).

Cyril the bat lived in a tree next door.. and he was huge. Let me make this clear.. he was NOT a small bat!

5 mins walk from the beach so obviously a lot of time spent there! The waves were huge, like nothing I've seen before! Had a few embarassing bikini moments there but people were so busy trying to survive there dip in the sea that I think it went unnoticed!

Had some comedy nights in our little apartment! The most memorable was probably the night I had a most genius idea! The flat was non smoking and fully equipped with smoke alarms so we had to keep stopping our drinking games so people could go to the balcony... we soon tired of this so we pulled all the furniture to the balcony windows so the smoke would go out the window and everyone could carry on playing...

That's when the faulty lightbulb went off in my head...

'I'll burn some toast' I said.. 'That was, if the smoke alarm does go off we can just blame it on the toast!'

Everyone concurred that this was indeed a most fantastic idea, and that I was a genius.

We burnt some toast.

The toast set off the smoke alarm.

Cue mad panic to return the furniture to its original position, and running around with 2 bits of toast shaped charcoal shouting to the rest of the building.. 'It's just some toast!'

To be fair... we got away with it! Proving without a doubt that I truly am, a genius.

Movieworld was probably my favourite day out! The Superman rollercoaster was probably the scariest thing I've ever been on! Mad fun! The theme park itseld was quite small but there were loads of rides and shows so we still didn't get to do it all! Did the best bits tho... and best of all.. hardly ANY queues!

On the way to Brisbane from Surfer's we stopped and went zorbing! Now that's insane.. they put you in a plastic ball with a load of water and push you down a hill! Such a giggle.. I want to do it again! Some crazy man I go to take photos for us decided to LIE in the path of our ball and take a photo as we went over him! Genius.. didn't come out so well tho because it was pitch black. Yes just to make it extra nuts.. we did it at night! haha Zorbing guys.. its the way forward!

So now we are in Brisbane... and soon I shall be updating you again

Hope all are well guys

Much love to you xxx

2007-06-16T23:18:00.000-07:00

Vicky and Tara's travels up the coast are underway...
They met some lovely friends
And spent lazy days on the beach
But Vicky hid behind alcohol... and NO CLUE what is going on with Tara's face!

After Surf Camp it was up to Bryron Bay for a couple of days.

Arrived i the afternoon and went wandering straight away to find the beach

The first night was full of drinking, dancing and merriment but...

it all ended in Byron Bay hospital!

Yes on her 3rd night in Australia.. Vicky managed to fall over a man in a sleeping bag and split her chin open! So off we were taken in a POLICE VAN for Vicky to get stitches in her chin.

WHAT a melon!

Fortunately the rest of Byron was a much more chilled affair and it was ON TO Surfer's Paradise! AKA the Gold Coast...

2007-06-16T23:07:00.000-07:00

I'm shocked.. really...
Derek, Sam, Me and Stacy Oh and we bumped into another workmate too! (Can you tell Neverfail employees get free tickets to the zoo?!!!)

As I promised guys... Sydney Zoo photos.

As you can probably tell, more time was spent with various 'props' found around the Zoo than on looking at the animals themselves. They kind of made an interesting sideline inbetween the 'modern art' we amused ourselves with!

I had a good time !

2007-06-07T03:32:00.000-07:00

Ah ha this isn't as hard as it looks methinks...
Ok so the water adds difficulty....
But let's face it I'm a surfing legend!!!!

Well, I have FINALLY managed to start my travels up the east coast... although it's all gone a bit wrong as I'm having trouble delaying my flight to NZ!

Most of you will probably know now that I'm considering finishing my RTW trip as planned in September but then venturing back out to Ozland for an unspecified amount of time - with the general aim of becoming an Australian Citizen.

A lot is swimming around in my head, I have no set plan. So please don't ask because the answer to all of your questions is a resounding.. 'I don't know!'

Anyway.. Just before I left Sydney, Some work friends and I had a free zoo trip courtesy of Neverfail Springwater!

It doesn't appear to have that many animals although I did get to see a platypus!

Still we amused ourselves :)

I would post our highly amusing pictures but this computer is being temporarily mental (haha see what I did there? Oh yes i'm that funny)

But keep an eye out because they will be here soon...

Vicky is here now, a friend of mine from Leeds who has decided to join me for a 3 weeks holiday. It's mad to have a friend from here out with me! She's having a blast.. too much of one actually. I had to take her to A and E last night for her to get stitches in her chin!!! She's only been in Oz 3 days! Still we'll all had our ridicluous (atv related) accidents whilst travelling haven't we? ;)

Thanks for reading guys, keep up the good work

and I'll be with you again shortly xxx

2007-05-26T02:10:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving Sydney!

That was a lie.. I couldn't resist going back to Melboune for a few days so off I go

but I will return to what travellers know to be the Sydney trap. You JUST can't leave!

So all my plans have changed yet again.. I'm driving Quantas mad with my flight plans!

This is a quickie cuz im late for my bus!

Blue Mountains were amazing.. we laughed so much.. and it was beautiful.

I've met some amazing people here.. even work has been fun!

I WILL be travelling the coast.. just waiting for a friend to arrive then off we go..

As you can see from pic, Ali's 21st was a joyous occasion.

We are splitting again (not really seen each other in Sydney at all to be fair!)

Will update soon and maybe elaborate on my Sydney shennanigans!

Love to you all, miss you like crazy

Tara xxx

(and in case you ever do read this... kek!)

hahahah xxxx

2007-05-11T17:14:00.000-07:00

Pietro, Me, Louise, Jeni, Geordieboy

This is the night Man Utd beat Man City, just before the match. Of course the next day Arsenal forced a draw with Chelsea and Man Utd won the Premiership Title. I just wanted to mention it... GO ON THE REDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me, Coralie and Boo!
My housemates from Uni!!! We're ALL slowly moving here... Reunion night pic!Libby Kennedy and me -. we could be sisters!!!

I have begun to stalk Karl.. as you may remember I met him in melbourne already
Its not the best photo but you get the point. Botanical gardens is beautiful.. people were getting married there and it was just so gorgeous.. I was thinking I might just go find myself a man to marry right then! hahaha
Hot Chocolate made from REAL liquid chocolate.. just mmmmmmmmmmmmm.....
Cats on our way out.. security guard clearly a cat person!
Jeni's mum learning to appreciate the cheesy backpacker bar frequented by us Harmony dwellers.. the legend of SIDE BAR!!!!!

Hi,
What can I say?

Workin hard and playing harder.
Clarence's birthday was on tuesday 8th may. Those of you who forgot.. shame on you.

I could not be with him, and I miss him
So we decided it was best to celebrate his birthday.. Cat style.
The security guard I think was mightily impressed.

It's lucky that the security guards like us. mostly because i don't actually live in the apartment I've been staying in for the past 3 weeks! And I dont think they realise :)
I haven't abandoned the lazy one.. hes poodling about in glebe and we actually saw each other the other night and had a pretty decent night out in our local bar. Our being me and the friends I crash with..
Confused? Me too.
At the moment it seems that me and Ali will be travelling up the east coast together but he's having money issues. Hopefully people will be generous at his birthday.. which is coming up sooooooooooooooon... 21 ey!

Working for Neverfail Springwater has been interesting.. my boss is nice but utterly incompetant. It amuses me that in my job at home, i was more or less in her position and I know i could fix things in 1 day if she listened to me! But it amuses me and I'm getting paid to do monkeywork so who cares.
Plus I've made some lovely friends there. Lovely friends... and discovered Kafka too.
Always learning something :)

Jeni's (blonde cat) mum and grandma came here for a week to visit last week! They were so lovely... it was great to have them here. They made us remember to do some more touristy things like hang out in the Botanical gardens, go to the Glebe market, go to the Lindt chocolate shop and drink the most amazing hot chocolate you'll ever have in your life.. those kind sof things :)
Oh, and Jeni's mum jumped right in on our traditional late night jacuzzi sessions! Legend!

Today i am off to the Sydney Opera House again. This time to see "Holding the Man" a play about 2 gay men growing up and falling in love - should be good :)

Ok so this hasnt been the GREATEST update. I am so busy I just barely sleep but it's not the same kind of busy in Thailand in that I can't show pictures of what i'm doing - no elephants here!
I spend so much of my time laughing..
and talking.. and dancing.. even when I walk to work!

I'm really really happy.
And yes I do have a new hair colour :)

XXX

2007-04-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I have been a new level of rubbish! Sorry for the lack of updates.

Having a FANTASTIC time in Sydney.. actually thinking about staying an extra week as I´m supposed to leave in 2 weeks and I have made nowhere near enough cashola for the coast!

I WILL update soon. Properly.

For now I will leave you

with this pic of the people you should blame for the lack of updates!!! X

2007-04-11T18:53:00.000-07:00

Sydney Opera House is stunning. It was one of the sights I was most looking forward to - something that made me really feel like I was in Australia!

Sydney Harbour Bridge

BIG chess randomly in the street!

Aurthur Bradley the seagull.
Reunited with Coralie! Uni housemate!
Santa has turned to a life of crime since Christmas...
Bondi Beach!

Sydney is awesome.

I overuse that word so much nowadays but it's not a bad word to overuse. Better than rubbish...

Been here in a week - mostly looking for work but have had some time for recreational activities :)

Went to see Macbeth at the Opera House which was fantastic! Definately going to a couple more shows while i'm here. It was only $ 30 for my ticket which is about 12 pounds!

Ali is uncultured and for the most part, bed ridden.. so he hasn't seen the Operah House yet! :)

I bring him back photos so he doesn't have to breakaway from the biggest loser - his new favourite tv show! Poor lad...

Met up with my uni friend, Coralie - she's living and working in Sydney for at least a year but looking to move permanently. It was great catching up with her, we went out over easter weekend and caught up again easter monday at Bondi beach!

The beach is gorgeous and it's so strange for me being able to go to the beach in 20 minutes from such a busy city! In Thailand you had one or the other.. Sydney has both!

(Still Thailand beaches are better! I miss it loads)

Seen a lot of the suburbs outside the city because I was doing a marketing job last week - this is where I caught out Santa and his new life of crime!

Mostly been in the city though, and now I know it really well! Definately better than I know Leicester anyway! Shocking....

Missing Melbourne - or rather the people. So used to living with Maureen and Jim, I miss them loads! And my workbuddies :(

Really looking forward to going back for the weekend and seeing them all and Georgina and her family! Should be awesome staying with them for a couple of days :)

Happy Easter peeps.. Will update you all soon xxx

2007-04-03T04:59:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,
I guess I've been pretty lame with updating recently BUT then you guys never comment anymore so how am I to know if anyone even ever READS my blogspot anymore..!!!

I'm in Sydney... Arrived today. Staying in a backpacker apartment stylie place with ali and 2 roomies. It's cool and we plan 2 get jobs and stay 6 weeks. I already have 4 interviews and I only got here this morning! YAY!

Last few weeks in Melbourne were epic. Went to the Moomba festival and saw the birdman competition! Where people see how far they can 'fly' jumping into the Yarra River.

I took a didegeridoo lesson! And apparantly did well...

Went to a safari park and saw some amazing animals right up close, and nearly got charged by a rhino! OOPS!

Went to a sanctuary and met TARA the wombat! And fed the kangaroos, wallabies and emus!

I met My uncle Nathan, Auntie Tracey and my cousins Benjamin and Corey!

I went to a proper Aussie rules footy game with my Auntie Georgina, Uncle Gavin and cousins Emma and Laura. Geelong lost to the Bulldogs which was bad for them but I enjoyed myself :) the Telstra dome is great, but I still prefer English football!! Man Utd by the way... WHAT a season!

Left work :( but had a really good leaving night out to celebrate the end of my waitressing days! I actually enjoyed my job and made some good mates.. some of whom I'll be seeing again in England or Ibiza!

Went to Phillip Island to see the penguins wash up on shore and trek to their burrows on land. That was just fantastic. I can't believe how far they struggle.. it was amazing to watch the little groups parading up the beach!

AND I met Karl Kennedy and Darcy from neighbours, visited Erinsborough, Ramsey St and watched Karl's band play whilst slightly inebriated AND got his signed cd! lol...

SO yes Melbourne was fantastic and I did loads of stuff depite all the hard work! hehe...

Heading back there for a weekend to see everyone but for now am settling well into Sydney - well for my first night anyway!

Keep in touch people xxx

2007-03-08T20:42:00.000-08:00

Wakeboarding Aussies...
Skateboarding yankees
I'm glad I didn't stick with the see-through theme...

I am contemporary art...
Ali's favourite sculpture!!!
Giraffe incase you didn't know...
Meercat on duty

Ali looking like a Vietnamese Lion...
Wombat - these things are so cute.. but they wreck your car!
Kangaroooooooo

Big Bear - not brown bear ;)

Yes I've sprouted Koala ears.. I like them so I'm keeping them.

Lucky people.. another update!

Had a busy week.. going well at my new job even though the pay is shittius maximus!

Ali is a lazy bastard and still isn't working ;) PLEASE people email him and 'encourage' him as there is a very real danger he'll be bedridden before the end of the month!!!

Went to Melbourne Zoo yesterday with my auntie Georgina, was excellent! Saw koalas (well one - the rest were hiding), Kangaroos, Wombats, Giraffes, Bears, Ali... all kinds of crazy animals.

Got to play with a snake as well cuz we made it to the snake house at feeding time. I say play.. I mean touch, and watch the keeper pick it up with a hook!

Day before that we went to the Docklands in the City to watch some Wakeboarding, caught some awesome skatebaording as well - they were filming stunts for a dvd. Got some great video footage of it but can't put video on the blog :( so you'll have to use the photo and your imagination! Only downside was the skaters were arrogant american kids.. damn those yanks!

By the Docklands at the moment is loads of different sculptures, some kind of contemporary art exhibition - some of them are fantastic! Quite a few arty shops around the area.. I nipped into an aboriginal art shop and got the guy to play the didgeridoo for me (I know that's gotta be the wrong spelling!) - maybe I'll learn while I'm here ;)

So having fun still.. weather is getting wierd.. I can see what they mean about Melbourne having 4 seasons in one day! It's still mostly hot tho...

2007-03-04T22:41:00.000-08:00

Aussie Rules Football.. not as good as REAL football but it'll do...
Ali and Matt - the lovely couple went out for an Italian meal :)

Australia is a tad bare in places!
Bailey in his toy box!
Me on the beach in Torquay... who knew that was in OZ?! I'm going to Newcastle soon too!
Australia is gorgeous.. and hot :)

Hey guys,
Been in Oz for 3 weeks now and FINALLY getting around to blogging!
Not been up to as much as usual that would be interesting for you guys.. mostly meeting people and looking for work!

Staying in Melbourne with my dad's best friend's family who are awesome. My dad is also out here for a month or so and has taken me to meet his family! So I've met an entire side of my family that I never met before.. unless you count when I was 6 months old! Pretty amazing for me.. but not so interesting for you guys.

Terry's family are awesome. Bailey is the youngest grandchild of Maureen and Jim (who me and Ali are living with). He comes over every weekday, and is the most awesome 2 year old I've ever met! I've wasted many a day playing with him when I should have been job hunting!

Have got a job now though - working at a restaurant called Lazy Moe's. The food is fantastic but I have NEVER seen such big portions. Most of the meals would comfortably feed 2 or 3 people! Insane.. it's so odd being in Oz after thailand.. so much is different! I miss Thailand but am loving Australia, just in a different way.

Met some cool people. Spend a lot of time hanging around the squash courts because terry owns 2, and for those of you that don't know - my dad was a squash professional, so he's been coaching here a bit. I've learnt to play. I am awful. It's fun tho! I've joined a gym too! WHO AM I?!!!! I've turned 23 and I've got all old and sensible.. nahhh.. just broke ;) I'll be back on track when we travel up the east coast I'm sure.

Met ANOTHER Matt (what is with that at the moment?) He is Ali's new boyfriend. I think he dumped Barry cuz we don't see him much anymore. Ali and Matt are happy tho.. going on their first date tonight.. cinema. I'm crashing cuz i like playing gooseberry! hehe

Ali is also finding work.. he has an interview at KFC next week.. oh yes..

OOh.. I've been learning to drive out here too! Legally this time (I think).. is going well. Driving loads.. and long journeys.. mostly on the freeway. Sounds pretty safe ey? Can't be worse than the atvs! Arm is healing nicely thanks for asking ;)

Off to the Zoo on Thursday so should have some good pics for you.. seen some kangaroos already. Went looking for them in the car in the early hours of the morning with Terry's brother - was hilarious! I guess u had to be there tho...

So. Australia is wicked. Will try and keep you updated a bit more regularly! Hope everyone is well xxx

2007-02-13T22:59:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Am at the airport.. leaving Thailand in an hour and heading to Oz, will arrive on my birthday!

Decided that since i won't be with friends on my actual bday that me, shortie and matt would celebrate on the 12th.

We did it in style...

First we took a ride in the microlite plane.. it was absolutely superbulous! Shortie paid 4 my flight as my bday present... isn't she luvverrly?

Views over Chiang Mai were amazing andthe pilot - apple - was wicked!

Next we took a 3 hour 250 cc atv trek (all terrain vehicle) and I discovered that all terrain is somewhat of an exaggeration. I feel grossly misled..

basically I managed to drive mine head first over the bank to an almost certain death. God only knows how i survived.. but somehow i maanaged to bail and grab onto something to stop my fall. Unfortunately the falling atv fell into me and dragged me down again.. narowlyavoiding pinning me to a tree.

I was so lucky i couldn't believe it! neither could anyone else! I skinned my arm badly (as in now it has no skin!) but other than that.. just minor cuts and bruises!

I was a bit of a minor celebrity back at the shop - everyone wanted photos of me and my atv! How embarassing? STILL... i'm lucky not 2 be a contendor for the Darwin Awards!!!

In all honesty.. it was an intense experience and whilst i wouldnt do it again.. i wouldn't go back and NOT do it.
Shortie prob would... watching me dive headlong to almost certain death wasn't much fun!

Travellings awesome :)

And maybe I'll get to see 23... only 4 and a half hours to go innOz time!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

2007-02-08T08:13:00.000-08:00

WOW!

Kanchanaburi is, as always, amazing... even though we've only been here a day and have to leave tomorrow for Chiang Mai :(

Today we managed to go elephant trekking and then go in the river and bathe the elephants! Fantastic experience.. and bloody hilarious. For some reason my elephant was a diver! He just kept diving sideways into the water at random intervals! Shortie was laughing so hard until we had a minor elephant crash and hers started diving too! It's hard to stay on a diving elephant when you're laughing so hard you might cry!

The trekking was hilarious as well, because our guide was a crazy Burmese man who kept singing 'The lion sleeps tonight' and taking photos of the elephant weeing! (Be grateful I didn't post that!) He was an awesome guide! Let us sit on the actual elephant for some parts of the trek, which they don't usually let you do (usually you have to sit on the seat on the back of the elephant) - I can see why they don't usually let you! It's SO hard to balance.. I was bloody scared at some points, especially downhill!

After that we went to the Tiger temple because Shortie hadn't been before and I loved it last time. It was really good again, plus this time we got to see some 3 month year old cubs (obviously they weren't there when I went in Sept!)

Shortie was walking along with one of the tigers when they were taking them back out of the main canyon, and it got a bit feisty so she had to help the workers there keep hold of him! Go on the Short one.. she's a toughy!

So absolutely epic day, and it didn't stop there.. got back, rented bikes and hit the night market :)

Busy busy busy, and only a week left in Thailand for me :(

Off to Chiang Mai tomorrow where we'll probably catch up with some friends we made in Bangkok last week.. then Oz!

Hope everyone's well and not working too hard.. hehe x

2007-02-07T05:02:00.000-08:00

Koh Lanta was gorgeous - view from my hotel room was stunning!MBK shopping centre - it's insanely huge.. and cheap! I love it!
Matt the fruit obsessed kiwi

The things you find in Bangkok...?!
Ring of Fire beginnings... Shortie gets over excited...
.. and Matt suffers the consequences!

Hey up,

Back in Kanchanaburi for a couple of days and have met up with Shortie again.

Been in Bangkok for the last few days trying to sort out flights and camera problems etc.. but still managed to have a lot of fun!

Spent my first day in Bangkok with a guy called Matt that I met in my hostel. Lovely guy from NZ.. maybe a little obsessed with fruit?!

I later met his brother.. also obsessed with fruit!

Is that a kiwi thing? Oooh.. accidental pun, how awful. Honestly though, I've never met 2 guys so obsessed with the virtues of a good bit of pineapple!

The night Shortie arrived, we smuggled a load of beers into the hostel (not supposed to drink in the dorms) and played some crazy drinking game - for those in the know..Ring of Fire! Originally we were playing US rules as dictated by another Matt that I met in the hostel...but soon Shortie enforced European drinking rules and obviously ... carnage ensued! Shortie was her usual dangerous destructive self.. hehe.

I was an angel.

Hangovers resulted in us not checking out of the hostel in time, and the owner accused us of being squatters!

Actually, we didn't seem to be too popular with the majority of the hostel.. who knows why?! ;)

Apart from the welsh guy, I love the welsh!

2007-01-30T20:25:00.000-08:00

Kiteboarding on Koh Samui
My Kiteboarding instructor (Sam) and my fellow instructees (Roo and Bosh)
View from my room in Koh Lanta... Sweeeeeeet
Lisa showing how it should be done.. bloody northerners.. you gotta love 'em!!!

I hear it's been snowing in England...

Well as you can see from the pics, it is FAR from snowing in Thailand!

I've spent the last week in Koh Samui and am now in Koh Lanta. Very different islands...

Koh Samui was fantastic, but very commercial (not quite Phuket but nearly).

I liked it.. it was a nice kind of busy. It was also perfect for kiteboarding! I'd never tried kiteboarding.. or even surfing before but it was so much fun learning, if it wasn't so expensive I'd have stayed on Koh Samui and done loads more of it.

I think it's especially fun if you're as small as me cuz the kite lifts you right up out of the water.. I skipped a few steps early on and got straight into body dragging! I was learning with a couple of Dutch guys (see pics) who were ex Navy - they didn't seem to have quite the same flying abilities as me.. nevermind I'm sure one day they'll get to my standard! Seriously though.. it's a must try for any of you who love surfing. I LOVED it! Roo loved it so much on his first day that he bought himself a kite and board!

Koh Lanta is a much quiter island, and still very much recovering from the Tsunami damage. As an island i prefer it to Koh Samui.. it's far more beautiful and the weather is hotter for longer (Koh Samui got a bit cloudy in the afternoons). Went out in a speedboat yesterday and did some of the best snorkelling i've done out here, amazing diversity of sea life round here! The speedboat was bloody scary though... 2m waves nearly capsized us a few times.. it was more of an exhilerating ride than the relaxing one I was expecting.. I loved it!

Plan from now gets a bit sketchy.. heading back to Bangkok in 2 days and then we'll see.. keep you posted more often now... I promise x

2006-12-29T11:52:00.000-08:00

John - Tour Leader. Beautiful ey? He should never have taken that photo of me on the sleeper train!

Ali, me and Ali's boyfriends - the Geordies! WA HEY!

Me working hard on attaining my 30 crocs.. MINIMUM of...

Singapore can be beautiful :)

Me in raffles with Sam and Anna (I couldn't afford the singapore slingers tho!)

Laura, Jacqui, 2 Andys and Ross at Raffles.. aren't they posh? What is that face Andy?!

Jim, Elaine, Frank and Jon at Raffles.. HELLO JIM!

It has been a little while since my last post...

... we are not dead.

I feel I should mention that we went to Singapore.. it was good :)
We hit the beach a bit but mostly were too poor to leave the hostel, and definately too poor to stay there! Basically we hid :) It was fun times!

Ali and I have split up, not in the dating sense... we were never dating and we will never date. Ali will probably never date.

We will reunite.. but probably not until mid Feb.

See some photos - they are nice

MERRY XMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

2006-12-09T05:48:00.000-08:00

Tour ended today :(

Have run out of money and have no place to stay tonight! So currently hiding out in our mates hostel till money comes through and a room becomes available! Hilarious...

We've done loads but mostly we drank far too much and lazed about! 18 of us on the tour I think so always someone to chat to and do things with.. sometimes end up just sitting around chatting all day when u should be out sightseeing! lol. Still we did loads and I'm waiting to scan some pics to show you that aren't on my camera. They are fantastic pics so worth the wait trust me ;)

SO.. things we did that weren't drinking.. er...

Attempted to get a bit of culture and visit a buddhist temple in Penang.. didn't make it past the huge shopping centre :)

Ali went to some cool indoor theme park in Kuala Lumpur but I was ill so I stayed in bed, but found that I was well enough to make the night out to the beach club.. Excellent night out with some crazy live band that did queen songs!

Went to a waterpark in Malaka which was excellent until i went down the crazy beast of a slide and got an accidental colonic irrigation!

Relaxed in a rooftop jacuzzi..

Visited an Aquarium which was by far the best aquarium i've ever seen.. it has some cool animals that you wouldn't expect in an aquarium tho...

Ate fantastic food :)

So yeah.. last 17 days have been epic. Really sad saying bye to everyone.. but in most cases it's just a really long see you later, and we'll be reuniting in Oz in the next few months.

Hope everyone is well.. keep us updated on xmas and new years in england xxx

2006-12-01T01:33:00.000-08:00

Apologies guys.. honestly been so crazy busy I've had no chance to update the blog.. and let's face it. Ali isn't gonna do it! lol...
For the record... me and Ali haven't fallen out.. we just wanted to do different things for a bit so stop with the concerned emails people.. all is well!

So.. Phi Phi was amazing with shortie.. tried cliff jumping which was DAMN scary... and Lucy it MORE than made up for my woosing out of the hight dive board. 6m and 8m jumps off a cliff is FAR scarier! plus you have to climb the cliff in the first place (hence the rock climbing gloves!) The pic is of me jumping off 8m but it didn't come out so well.. still.. it looks kinda cool.
We got chased by monkeys on a beach.. and Shortie got bitten! Lucky we shelled out for our rabies shots ey? And that Ali missed this part of the trip (he didn't bother with his shots)!

I also got to swim/snorkel with 2 black tipped reef sharks.. but the photo doesn't show up at all on the blog cuz it's deep underwater and a bit cloudy so you don't get to see that!

So, having been lazy for the 1st 3 days.. we were crazy busy for the last 4 and inevitably I had to make the 16 hr journey back to bangkok in a disgustingly hungover state! I blame Short one.. still looking forward to travelling with her some more after the tour...

And now the tour!
WOW!
Having a fantastic time.. moving every couple of days so not really settling anywhere but this way we see a lot, don't have to worry about making arrangements for a change, and we get to travel with 16 other people so have made some awesome friends.
In some ways this has been the best part of the trip so far.. but I always think that. It is particluarly good to travel with other people tho. Of course we've made some other great friends along the way but we usually have to go our separate ways after a week.

We've been on the tour for less than a week and have made a really good group of mates.. we're in Malaysia and have just arrived in Cameron Highlands where we will be sharing 2 apartments. haven't yet taken pics but trust me.. these apartments are superb! I actually think I will have to be dragged kicking and screaming from them when we leave! Planing on having a crazy house party tonight.. and maybe a round of golf tomorrow! haha.. I love the travelling life!

Gonna love you and leave you.. this post nowhere near covers what we've been up to but I don'tthink you guys would have me sit at a computer any longer when I have so much to do tonight ;)
hehehe

xxx

2006-11-19T03:01:00.000-08:00

Me on the Jet Ski in Phuket
Ali on the speedboat we were parasailing from
Either me or Ali patrasailing.. It's kinda hard to tell! lol
I don't know why i was pulling this face..
Shortie and Tara Reunion. House wave girlies... now GET OUT HERE!

The goregous island of Phi Phi :)

Hey peeps,

Ali and I have gone separate ways for a bit.. meeting back up in Bangkok for our tour thru Malaysia and Singapore.. Quite honestly.. I don't know how i looked at his face everyday for 74 days but now I don't have to! WA HEY! Ahh love u really Ali.. and expect a similarly stupid insult in return.. but i will never be shitleg and so's ur face :p Besides you CAN taste the ginger and if u argue with me i'll get the Viatnamese bus dude to come see you again ;) Mwah ha ha ha!

Phuket was nice.. we both tried Parasailing and jet skiing.. but mostly it was too touristy for us so Ali headed to parts unknown in the direction of Bangkok.. and I headed to Phi Phi.

Phi Phi is much better, although still has a roaring nightlife. It's the best of both worlds really.. beautiful! but much more expensive than anywhere else i've been in Thailand, esp now its peak season. Ali - you would actually have cried. Short's cabin was 2000 a night! I met some Canadian dude tho and we took over his cabin when he left for only 700. Still.. u wud have had to sleep on the beach :p

Anyhoo.. its excellent having a beach reunion with Shortie.. Ollers.. u must have gone INSANE with jealousy by now!

Mum.. have sent u an email.. didnt know u guys were all going to see Jamie.. no one tells me ANYTHING! Who's Brooke by the way? Maybe u could ask her.. lol. Thanks for sorting out my phone bill. I blame anyone reading this... cuz i probably called you at some pouint b4 leaving the UK so u can ALL put in for my 200 quid phone bill! Oops.. now i'm kinda glad i lost my phone at v fest..

Best go now.. me and the Short one are off to a Black moon party.. we've been pretty lazy so far but plan on doing a couple of tours in the next 3 days.

Love you all
Tara xxx

P.S. I think Ali is planning on motorbiking to Burma! But so far.. he hasn't got up early enough so is in kanchanaburi! hahahahaha!

2006-11-14T05:15:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,
Back in Thailand now.. Phuket to be exact. Should be meeting up with Shortie tonight or tomorrow.. WA HEY! That's right welsh one, blonde one and Bromley wiggle.. house wave reunion minus Ol of the wyn.. Bek of the blonde, BooBoo and Hannah (where is she?!)
Yeah so just me and Short one then...

Vietnam and Laos were fantastic.. in different ways.
Vietnam was crazy busy in Saigon.. traffic everywhere.. but after Cambodia it was quite welcome. People were much friendlier, and although by the end of Cambodia we'd learned to love it, Vietnam was much preferred by all.
From Saigon we ventured out to the coast.. Mui Ne, still with our Swedish buddies, Anna and Olof.. who - for the record - are NOT from Switzerland! (lol)
The beach in Mui Ne was pretty crazy.. the waves were really high right up to the shore, and it was quite mental trying to swim in it! Mostly we stuck to the pool in our hotel.. less crabs and sharks!
While we were there, we took a trip to the yellow sand dunes.. amazing! As you can see, it's like the middle of the desert! The sand is SO hot it burns your feet.. but braved it ;) and had fun sliding down the dunes. Still, it was too hot to stay long!

From Mui Ne, we headed to Hue on a sleeper train. This was NOT as nice as the Thai trains..
Firstly there wasn't enough room to swing a cat (not that ANYONE would EVER try this.. sickos..) and secondly we shared a 6 bed cabin with about 9 other people! Add to this that for some reason the train was playing the most awful squealing Vietnam 'music' till late and from 5 in the morning! It actually nearly killed me. I don't think it could have been called music.. on second thoughts.. maybe I was wrong about the cats...

Got off the train and on to a Cyclo (Ali is modelling one above - how lovely) He calls them shitlos.. he's an idiot. I owe him a coke if they're actually called that apparantly :p ooh and apparantly it's spelt Chit Lo (he's being pedantic today - and a git). They're actually quite fun to ride around in, although you can't help but feel bad for the guys riding us around.. oh yeah that sounds wrong.. lol. Hung about in Hue for the day then hopped on a bus to Laos.

The minibus to the Laos border was a little odd..

... basically we were the first on it. And as we drove around in what was essentially a big circle.. the driver and his companions jumped off the bus and dragged random Vietnam locals onto it!
Not all of these passengers came aboard willingly.. infact one man tried to get off at least 3 times only to be dragged back on! Eventually he managed to escape but it was a close one.
We felt uncomfortable to say the least.. especially since there were at least 25 people squeezed onto this 10 seater bus for quite a long time! I think we somehow got involved in a kidnapping ring, but once at the border we quickly forgot about the victims we'd left behind ;)

Laos was amazing. We stayed in Savannakhet and didn't have time to move around, which was a shame. We would have liked to have gone to Vietienne and Luang Prabang. Anyway, Savannakhet was lovely and not remotely touristy, which gave us a real taster of true village life in Laos. We don't have many photos which is a shame, but it's not really about walking around taking photos of people living their everyday lives! Still the photo above is of a typical house that we saw in this area.
The people were really friendly, and the place was incredibly cheap. The food was FANTASTIC! Went twice to a restaurant that did fondue.. such a novelty getting to cook our own food, having eaten out every day for the last 2 and a half months! We stayed a day longer than planned, and both of us would like to go back and spend more time in Laos at some point. The only reason we didn't was a malaria tablet shortage.. shame...

From Laos, we headed through Bangkok to Phuket. It took 2 days of pretty much constant travelling.. exhausting! So we're having a chill for a few days :)

Oh.. Bean.. that's for Hannah and Johanna.. I couldn't resist it when I saw in in Bangkok! Got some pretty wierd looks for taking photos of a shop sign tho! lol...

Missing you all, email us or leave comments cuz we wanna know what YOU'RE doing too!
Much love
Tara and Ali xxx

2006-11-03T03:39:00.000-08:00

Found these and HAD to add them. Its the 'road' we were talking about. I think now you have a better idea of what we mean! And at some points we (I say we - but i didn't and Ali did) had to get OFF the truck and PUSH! Still I think he was more comfy pushing than on the roof for 10 hrs! lol!
Also I forgot to mention that in Cambodia there are still loads of undiscovered landmines! So everywhere you go, you have to make sure you stay on the beaten track and don't stray. You don't forget because the victims of landmines are everywhere you look, and to think they're the lucky ones! It's awful. It didn't cross our minds for a second to stray anywhere!

Just also wanted to say before I go... HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEB! Sorry i can't celebrate it with you mate but know i'll be thinking of you. Love to Felix - hope you enjoy the fireworks kiddo. Don't be playing with sparklers! xxx

2006-11-03T01:41:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

In Vietnam now.. got here yesterday from Cambodia.

Cambodia.. what a place. Neither of us have been anywhere like it and it's virtually impossible to describe it and our experience of it. The photos don't come close to showing the truth of Cambodia, they're of us at beautiful temples.. and the money - well we're millionaires in Cambodia, and Vietnam for that matter. It's what we couldn't photograph that was the real experience of Cambodia.

Firstly, the journey there was incredibly bad. Terrible infact, and at times terrifying. We travelled from the border to Siem Reap on a 150-200 km road on a pickup truck. It took 10 hours... it wasn't a road, it was a pothole, and in some places - a river. Water came in to the truck, we broke down numerous times, got stuck, got towed and all this time there were about 25 of us on the truck plus random locals hopping on and off. Ali had to sit on the roof! The whole way we were lied to and scammed for money. Forced to change dollars into Cambodian Riel at a ridiculous rate only to find out that it was dollars we needed most places. Everytime we asked how much longer the journey was, we were told 4/5 hrs. We gave up asking anyone anything and just hoped we'd make it. Fortunately the trip was a bonding experience for us travellers and we fought the scammers as a group and got ourselves to a nice hostel. We stuck together throughout Cambodia and have come to Vietnam with Olof and Anna, a lovely Swedish couple who we feel like we've known for years although it's only been a week! At some points I think we all would have given up and gone back to Bangkok if we hadn't stuck together!

The people in Cambodia were not friendly and we couldn't trust anyone. We were stared at and laughed at, made to feel guilty for not giving to everyone we saw, hassled constantly, and scammed by anyone we came into contact with. Of course there were a few exceptions, I can think of 3! But hey, that may have been stressful for us but if you saw the conditions in which these people live, and the poverty everywhere - u'd forgive them. It's expensive in Cambodia, seeing the temples for 1 day cost 20 US dollars and all that money goes to the oil company that owns them, not the temples. It's no surprise that Cambodia was declared the most corrupt country in the world in 2005.

Still, we're glad we went and relieved to have left. By the last day we had settled in and had fun. The temples were beautiful - Angkor Wat, and Ta Phrom where tomb raider was filmed. In between we stopped to see monkeys living wild on some grass by the side of the road. That was amazing as most monkeys we've seen (not all) have been in captivity. Fed them and watched them for a bit, saw a mother with a baby hanging on to her tummy as she walked, and 2 monekys making more monkeys! lol. So we did have a good time mostly. Just had to learn how to get about in such a place. We saw a couple arriving the night before we left and they looked terrified. Just as we must have when we got here. We tried to help them out but they has 'rabbit stuck in the headlights' syndrome so couldn't do much for them! To them, we must have looked like the most confident travellers in the world and they probably didnt think we understood how they felt. it's amazing how quickly you adjust to the place your in and before you know it you're enjoying it all!

Again, once we crossed the border intro Vietnam it was like being in yet another different world. It felt at least like being back to civilisation of some degree. This place is like a cross between Hong Kong and Thailand.. I can't believe how countries can be joined together by land and yet be so drastically different. I guess coming from an island explains why I have trouble with that!

Anyway, off to hit the beaches of Vietnam with Olof and Anna now (bottom pic.. the 2 in the middle - the girl on the left is Gina from melbourne, we're hoping to catch up with her in Oz) so hopefully will have an easier time of it. Then off to Laos, but we've had to cut this part of our trip short and will be heading back to Thailand earlier than expected cuz i'm running low on malaria tablets and it's not worth the risk (at 3 quid a tablet i'm not buying more!)

Hope everyone is well.

Tara and Ali xxx

2006-10-27T03:07:00.000-07:00

Well Koh Chang has been fantastic too.. we haven't done much except laze around on the beach and ride our motorbikes up and down the island in search of different beaches! lol
Its been a good place to relax before we step over into Cambodia tomorrow..

The beaches are lovely here, beautiful clear water. We made some little Thai friends as u can see in the pic. Three 9 yr old boys kept bringing me shells while i was lazing around on my lilo.. we ended up having so much fun with them! Just like when you were on holiday as a kid.. didnt matter that we didnt speak the same language.. just messed about in the sea. Ali was chuckin these kids around in the sea, and i was miserably losing the 'who can stand on the lilo the longest' game! It was a real shame when it got to be time to leave... thai kids are amazing. Not at all like screaming, whiny, needy, spoilt western kids. I'm so glad i never was one ;)

Our last day in Koh Chang has been our busiest, we went swimming with dolphins in Chanthaburi, which is close to but not actually on the island. It was really cool getting pulled along by dolphins, and the first ones we swam with were pink! On the way back we met alovely American couple, Jack and Christel (originally german) and were off for dinner with them this evening. They are really lovely and have already given us their contact details and offered us a place to stay in Chicago when we get there. They seem pretty well travelled and there son studied law in england for a bit, really interesting people and Christel gave us some safety advice about Cambodia.

Both of us are a bit nervous about getting to Cambodia.. we may have been robbed in our sleep in thailand but generally we are pretty chilled when it comes to leaving our stuff in hostels etc.. and we dont carry a lot of money on us so no need for moneybelts.
Cambodia is different... first we have to get in, past the crooked officials who try and make u pay extra when getting your visa, and there are no atms.. so u have to carry a lot of money around.. so we need the money belt. Plus we cant leave things in hostels there like we have here.. it's all gonna be a lot more hassle.
Having said that, not sure about Ali, but this part of the trip is the bit im most excited about.. mostly because it will be harder and less westernised. Thailand is a different culture from what we're used to but its so built around tourists nowadays (which is great mostly!) that the experience is kind of diluted.
Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.. they should be much more of a culture shock.

So wish us luck, and dont stress if you dont hear from us for the next few weeks. We have no idea what internet access there'll be. Of course, by now.. theres probably a starbucks on every corner, 2 Mcdonalds per person, and an internet cafe every 2 metres!

2006-10-23T04:51:00.000-07:00

Oh wow we're gettin behind with the blog! SO much going on all the time!
So.. we took the sleeper train up to Chang Mai.. it was 16 hrs about.. and we honestly thought we would fall out our beds and die (see how worried i look in the photo -actually I have NO idea what that face was about!) but we didn't. Instead we got a bit drunk, and Ali swung around the bunks like a monkey!

My friend Richard was with us, he met us in Bangkok.. and took the lower, safer bunk option. Damn him.
Chiang Mai was fantastic.. so much to do.

Went to a snake farm, Ali wouldn't hold the snake! Another monkey farm.. just can't get enough of those little cuties! One kept sitting holding my hand :)
A shooting range.. Ali did a bunjee jump! (we have a video but no photos) Went to a zoo called Koala zoo.. it had NO koalas! Plenty of crocodiles tho :) and saw lots of buddhist temples.. I chatted to a monk for a bit which was interesting.
To get around we rented a jeep again.. it was much scarier driving in Chiang Mai as the roads were busy, and we had to drive on some motorways! Mental.

The night bizarres were fantastic. First place we actually did some real shopping cuz things were so cheap. Of course it's hard to buy anything because we can't carry much.. Richard took some things back for us.. including my new blue (obviously) electric guitar - I just couldn't resist! And some lovely artwork.

We went bamboo rafting, and elephant riding (I wanted to buy a picture painted by an elephant on paper made from elephant dung! But it was too expensive for paint on poo), rode an ox and cart, and we also took a cooking course. That was fantastic. Really enjoyed learning to cook Thai food, and we all ate far too much! There's a pic of what we made.. I think you'll agree we're pretty amazing... and they taste even better than they look!

Our favourite activity HAD to be whitewater rafting tho. It was bloody scary, especially since on the last rapid our raft capsized and all of us had to float down the rapid just praying we didn't hit any rocks! We actually stayed an extra day just to do the rafting but we got a cheap deal and it was WELL worth it!

The only negative thing at all about Chiang Mai was the fact that the bars surrounding us wre filled with thai whores. Ali avoided them (he tells them he's gay!) but Richard LOVED it... he even 'made friends' with one called Tig. Nevermind...

So having had an awesome time up north, we headed south to Koh Chang to hit the beaches before travelling to Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. It's an odd way round to do it but Nick (a mate of mine from uni 4 those who dont know him) arrived in Thailand a week ago, so we planned to meet him. The journey down took 25 hrs on buses and boats. We got robbed while we slept on the bus from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, and when we finally arrived exhausted and peeved, the hut we booked was a cockroach filled hole. Oh joy of joys! I got chased around my hut by a cockroach, much to Ali's amusement, and finally got chased right out of it and had to crash in Ali's hut! Much to his annoyance! lol

Nevermind, we stayed there one night and the next day found a much better place to stay for not much more, and we found Nick. Spent the day on the beach today and so far.. not too many whores about the place. (Although apparantly Nick & Charlie have found some.. if u know Nick.. do ask him about his thai women experiences - hehe.. Olwyn.. he's DIRT! Magaluf wave baby)

Really loving Thailand, looking forward to the rest of south east asia though, miss everyone loads. Wish u could be here! (well some of you) :)

2006-10-10T23:28:00.000-07:00

Well guys,

finally a real update hey! it's been a fantastic 2 weeks. After kanchanaburi, we headed down south to Kao Tao, a little island down in the south of thailand. beautiful.
long journey there - 10 hours on a coach, lot of waitinf around wondering if we'd ever get picked up! then a 2 hour boat journey that made everyone feel like breakfast was a bad idea!
Worth every second tho. The beaches were beautiful, and the island so small that nearly everything was walking distance.
both of us tried diving for a day but on different days and different courses as Ali already has his padi qualification. really good fun but expensive so we spent much of our week in Koh tao just lazing around on the beach, and snorkelling. We did fit in a round of mini golf on our last night.. obviously i won :)

From koh tao we took a boat to koh pha-ngan. Much more to do there as the island is double the size. We stayed in the north which was quite quiet but we met shane and lauren, a couple from England 9although lauren is south african) and we hung out with them for quite a bit, including at the full moon party on the south of the island - Haad Rin beach. That was amazing, you can see from the photos we had an awesome time. Drinks were served in bucket form.. literally a bucket of ice, a can of coke, a red bull and a 35 cl bottle of rum/whisky/vodka! They whack it all in and unsurprisingly, everyone gets wrecked. ali was skipping about like a schollgirl! people ere passed out all over the beach! There was even a designated sleeping area! but most people just passed out randomly, I think one girl may actually have been dead, but we weren't too concerned cuz we were busy! lol (i'm sure she was fine).

The beach we stayed on was fantastic, our hut literally looked out onto the beach. we tried a bit of kayaking and snorkelling but Ali was afraid of sharks, and I was afraid of crabs and slugs so it was more of an adventure than it sounds! seaslugs... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

PARENTS - LOOK AWAY NOW (if you didn't it's your own fault and u can't get mad..)

The second day we wanted to do things around the island, so we rented a jeep! Yep that's right.. we drove ourselves around ina jeep with a broken speedometer and handbrake! and yep, neither of us have a license! but they didn't ask.. and we weren't going to tell them! the roads are bad in koh pha-ngan but not busy at least. sorry parents, we're being safe.. honest.. we wore seatbelts :) andit's better than falling of a motorbike.. not that i did that! Ali has a tattoo anyway. (phew, that took the heat off me for a sec)

having the jeep saved us loads of time and money, we saw a chinese temple, fed some elephants, got our legs waxed by crazy thais (err ok that was just me) and had some lunch in the main town. it was the best way to see the whole of the island.

so.. south was amazing and we're nice and brown. now we're in bangkok waiting for the sleeper train to take us north to chang mai. my friend richard joined us yesterday and is with us for 2 weeks. so we'll update you soon.

missing you all, let us know how u all are and what u think of our pics. it's only a shame we cant put more on - it was hard to choose which few to post!

love to you all
Tara and Ali (who is actually here this time)

2006-10-10T11:04:00.000-07:00

hey guys,
have loads to tell u but the having problems with the photos at the moment so will update in the next few days!
Sorry guys - we've had an awesome couple of weeks and will tell u ALL about it when i can get these damn photos to work.
Gotta sleep now.. long journey just completed and nother one tomorrow to Chang mia, miss u all loads!
Tara (and Ali who is currently playing poker) xxx

2006-09-25T23:23:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

It's only been a week since we last posted, but we've done SO much! We have so many photos it's ridiculous!
Bangkok got boring quickly, having come from Hong Kong we were so sick of city life. Also Ali fell in a hole of poo and earned himself the upsetting nickname of shitleg so we took a 3 hour bus journey to kanchanaburi, with Zoe and Gaz from the hostel.
We stayed in the jolly frog hostel, which was really nice - we had our own little hut by the river!
We only stayed 3 night but managed to squeeze in loads.

1st day was the waterfalls - absolutely beautiful. We swam in a couple of them, one of which had a rock that you could slide down into the water from! It was amazing. It was also a bit of a trek; we saw a HUGE lizard thing - apparantly a komono dragon, just walking past us. And monkeys above us in the trees playing. Just fantastic.
We rented motorbikes to get there, which was also fun.. got up to about 100kph on those bad boys! Mine was blue. Nothing else happened.

2nd day was tigers and monkeys! That was fun too. The monkey school was really hands on (as you can see from the pics) and they put on a little show for us, with a monkey playing basketball, riding a bike etc.. It did seem a bit cruel but the monkeys seemed happy enough and climbed all over us!
The tiger temple was cool. I was amused that, as a woman, I was allowed to touch the tiger but NOT the monks! haha.. anyone who knows me knows that was like telling me not to push the big red button! It nearly killed me but I resisted.. just wanted to poke him so badly! I'm bad..
The tigers were mostly rescued as cubs from poachers, or born there. It was a really nice place.

Would have done loads more in Kanchanaburi, and taken some time to chill cuz it was such a nice place. But time was running out and we wanted to head south, so we may go back at some point since it's not far from Bangkok.

Next we're heading to Koh Tao.. a little island as we've not yet hit the beaches! Madness..

Miss you all loads.

Lucy - I am braver than brave so shut up. I just didnt want to break my face on the bottom LIKE I did when i was a kid (hence chipped front tooth)

Olwyn - will u ever get a job/keep a job for longer than a month? Probably not... hehe! Hopefully meetin up with short soon!

Mum - food in Thailand is nicer than hong kong in my opinion. Who's looking after Clarence whilst your away? Has Sooty come back yet?

Oliver, Neil & Lisa - Nice to hear from you guys. Happy Birthday Neil :) big kisses oliver x

2006-09-21T01:20:00.000-07:00

2006-09-21T00:50:00.000-07:00

hey guys,

we've been in Bangkok a few days now and met some wicked people. I'm sure you've all heard about the military coup that happened 3 days ago but don't worry, as yet it hasn't affected us. Tomorrow we leave Bangkok to go to a place called Kanchanaburi, which is a but further out and should be a tad safer should things come to a head. Also it should be a place to do some cool things, cuz Bangkok is cool but having just come from hong Konh, we're a bit sick of city life.

The photos are of the crazy weather here.. we went into a shopping centre whilst it was boiling hot and emerged a few hours later to find the roads completely flooded. The thunderstorms here are immense. Of course the next day it was beautifully hot again and there was no evidence whatsoever of the flood that had occurred less than 24 hours before! Madness.

The first hostel we stayed in was lovely, and now we're in an Ozzy run one which seems lovely too. We have met a couple (Zoe and Gaz) from England and are going with them to Kanchanaburi. Should be fun. We went with them last night to a bar caled The Colosseum, and the second photo is from when Ali was dragged up to the stage (my fault - hehe) and nearly kissed by a ladyboy! Very amusing!

we are also posting some photos above this of the other day when we went to a university pool. We went with a Canadian guy, Gabriel, and it was amazing. I was a little scared of the diving boards but i did well considering. Ali and Gab were mad, and just loved it! It was a really good day, and though the photos don't show it, the weather was lovely and we caught the sun maybe a bit too much! fine now tho!

will update you guys when we get back from our trip, hope everyone is well. good luck with the baby Shaf, let me know when it's born! I'm really excited for you.
Vicky - happy birthday incase i dont get to internet nearer the time.
Brooke - happy birthday, am STILL looking for a good prezzie!
Mum - thanks :) Love you x

Ali would say something but he's poodled off somewhere, hi to his parents tho, he wanted to let u know he's safe from the coup!

2006-09-13T02:38:00.000-07:00

Time has gone so fast here in Hong Kong and now we have only 3 days left before moving on to Thailand! It's our last night in Mickey's flat so we have a hotel booked for our last 2 nights. It's right in the centre so we won't be stuck for places to go! The pictures our of 3 of our trips this week. One to the Art Museum, the picture shows an exhilbition made entirely from human hair (ok and a bit of glue!) - was pretty amazing!
The other trip was to Hong Kong Disneyland on its 1 year Anniversary (we got free birthday cake) and the photo is of us on the teacups! It's our personal favourite!
We also rode Space Mountain 6 times but apparantly our photo didn't fit with their 'code of conduct' so they wouldn't print it! Ask Ali why...

well taras pretty much summed up our week except for the peak tower, which was an awesome view over the whole of hong kong island. and the crazy club called 'cyber' which looks exactly how it sounds, thought it ws gonna be really crap cos it was just rnb but then turned into mental hong kongy rave club. thats pretty much our week cos we were meant to go to big buddha aswell but we were just really lazy and a bit poor.
shit gotta run now though the crazy phillipino karoke's bout to start in this weird arse internet cafe.

2006-09-10T02:53:00.000-07:00

Well guys, I'm sitting at the top of 'the peak' having a quick coffee so I thought I'd take a look at all ur comments! Debs.. first comment.. so BIG brownie points! lol..
Andi - shut up. For your information all my photos are fine on snapfish :p
Mum - Clarence is the boss of everything so don't be telling him off. Infact reward him for his innovative manner of dealing with your obnoxious pets! And we've done sooo many markets I can't tell u which ones we have and haven't done! Goldfish market was a shocker in that it actually was a market of goldfish tho...
Dan - which dan is this? lol!
Lucy - I hope dad is coping well with his loss! Lovin my bracelet :)
BooBoo - that name is DEAD I tell u. Ali is some random I'm travelling with ;) one of the manchester crew. I've never been to Newquay but I can't complain! lol
Jihad - Sorry I didn't mention you, and thanks for the lift to the airport! lol! I hope us being an item gets you all the women as planned, I bet it works!
Danny Gough - I don't have ur address so no postcards for any of you! Mwah ha ha!
Gray - It has been a while! Don't be too jealous, it's not like I'm going to disneyland on tuesday.. oh wait, yes I am! Hong Kong Disneyland! Wa hey
Robo - I have tried all the food except the chicken foot. I will NOT eat the foot!
Hana - sushi was yummy. There's no one called Dave in THIS house either! I LOVE johannas summary of Leeds fest by the way x

Ok so think I responded to all the comments. It's much appreciated guys, so keep it up. Wicked to be away but never forget my friends and family, so it's nice to hear from you. And whoever the random is that gave us zero travel kudos.. hahaha hahaha... you should see how many times we've been to Macdonalds! Oh yeah... hahahaha... see how much we need your approval... so much... hahahaha x

2006-09-09T02:07:00.000-07:00

hey guys, so this was the foam party and the aftermath. it's so hot here that it was amazing to be so wet and outside, really refreshing. Unfortunately it's so hot here that the air conditioning is fantastic so the bus ride home nearly killed us!
For the record, I am NOT a wimp.. I didn't eat chicken foot thank god but I DID eat crab, scallops, some random mini lobster thing and a whole lot of god knows what. Ali ate pork and chicken foot and thinks he's a big man! The people we ate with were Mickeys Godparents and family.. NOT people he picked up off the street! lol.
Seriously having an amazing time here, hope the photos satisfy you all for now. Beware of man behind door and always remember.. 'You CAN taste the foot!'

2006-09-09T01:48:00.000-07:00

and this sign as random as it looks tara found on the door of the ladies toilet in maccy d's. and was really worried that a random man might be stood there just waiting for her behind the door.

hey folks

well we had dinner with all these people, thought they were mickeys family but found out later he didnt actually know most of them, he just found them on the street. but was an awesome dinner ate some weird shit including chicken feet (of course tara didnt though big wimp).

peace out

2006-09-06T04:49:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, we did have some photos for you but this internet cafe won't let us upload them. nevermind, we'll sort it soon.
It's our 5th day in Hong Kong and we've been busy bunnies!

We've eaten a plethora of weird and wonderful foods, the best of which was in a buffet style restaurant where you got to cook your own food. They had sushi there as well, it was truly amazing!
We've ridden a rollercoaster suspended over the sea, got covered in foam in a foam party of sorts, seen lots of strange creatures at Ocean park (most of which were the vsitors!) including some sting rays.Don't worry people, I have heeded all the warnings people sent about Steve Irwin and the stingrays, we won't be jumpin in the tanks with them anytime soon! lol. We've visited markets and temples and been through all different towns. Definately an amazing place to be.

Ali has had his worst toilet experience EVER! Which is shocking considering we're regular festival goers! Funnily enough it was in a KFC restaurant... nice!

Mickey's flat (where we're stayin) is lovely and Mickey is a great tour guide. His mate Eddie is even better! And we've just about worked out the transport system. The underground is fantastic! Way better than London! And it's so cheap...

It's boiling hot so it's amusing to be cold inside and go outside to get warm! The air conditioning is a bit too good in most places.

Ali and I are getting on well considering how annoying he is and how evil I am. Many hilarious things have happened but you kinda had to be there so I'll just say.. 'You CAN taste the ginger!' (It'll mean something to us should we read this back one day!)

We'll keep you updated and get some photos on soon, and hopefully the video we took of Ali on a roundabout!
Anyway over to Ali..

Errr... dunno what to say.. I'm smoking like a horse.

err. thanks Ali. Catch you soon everybody xxx